EVANSVILLE, In. (WEHT) – With marijuana laws changing rapidly around the country, it is easy to get lost in the haze of what is legal and what isn’t.
In states like Indiana where marijuana itself is still a Schedule I substance, the demand is high for these legal hemp-derived products that are used both recreationally and medically.
“People with medical conditions have also mentioned to me that instead of spending so much money on medications that are prescribed to them. People have chosen Delta 8 and other Delta products as an alternative to help them out, whether it’s for pain, or just for anxiety,” says Inderpreet Singh, Owner of Munchies Smoke Shops in Evansville and one of the first to bring the product to the area.
Singh says he goes to great lengths to ensure the purity and legality of everything he sells, in a still largely unregulated market.
Even with those positive aspects, Delta 8 and other psychoactive hemp extracts could still cause trouble for people in recovery for addiction.
“It might be ‘weed lite’ as they call it, it might not get you as high, but it still gets you high. I can absolutely see someone falling back into Marijuana Use Disorder off of Delta 8,” says Nate Boyett of Boyett Treatment Center.
Another issue is with law enforcement having to determine what is legal hemp and what is criminalized marijuana in the field, when they both look identical and would test positive for THC with a traditional field test.
“You couldn’t tell what the chemical make up was until it went to the lab. New laws were introduced. To me it seems like another test upon those laws to see if they are going to change,” says Lt. Matt Schnell of the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office.
With Kentucky’s medical marijuana law and full blown legalization in Illinois, the question remains on whether Indiana will take similar steps toward legalization.